Different types of Plate Boundary

1. Plate Boundaries

2. There are 3 different
kinds of Plate Boundaries?!

3. Divergent boundaries
There are 2 different kinds of divergent boundaries:
1. Oceanic (Ocean)
2. Continental (Land)
● Divergent plate limits are areas where plates shift away from each other.
This happens atop rising currents of convection. At the bottom of the
lithosphere, the rising current pushes up, raising it and moving laterally
under it. This lateral flow causes the above plate material in the direction
of flow to be pulled along. The overlying plate is stretched thin at the
crest of the uplift and splits and pulls apart.

4. 1. Oceanic:
● At a divergent plate boundary, plates shift apart. This occurs at mid-
ocean ridges in the oceans. It occurs in continental rift zones on land.
● The spreading sea floor forms a new oceanic crust. The rising magma
results in a buoyant ridge. This is why the seas have a mountain range
running across them.
● In Iceland, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is above sea level. It's the only place
we can see a mid-ocean ridge out of the water.
Divergent boundaries

5. 1. Oceanic:
Divergent boundaries

6. 2. Continental:
● Many areas are being rifted apart in western North America. The Rio
Grande Rift in Texas is one such spot. Hot mantle rises up under the
crust at this position to cause the divergence.
● The border of a divergent plate on land rips apart continents.
● Magma rises underneath the continent during continental rifting, causing
it to become thinner, crack, and eventually fall apart. The fresh crust of
the ocean erupts in the vacuum, finally forming an ocean between
continents. There are now two separate lithospheric plates on either
side of the ocean. This is how continents are broken apart.
Divergent boundaries

7. 2. Continental:
Divergent boundaries

8. Transform boundaries
There is only 1 kinds of transform boundaries.
● In the dry portion of central California, the Pacific Plate is on one side
and the North American Plate is on the other side.
● Two plates can slide in opposite directions past each other.
● At a transformation fault, the plates
cross.
● The plates do not readily slip past each
other. Massive earthquakes occur at these
plate boundaries.

9. Convergent boundaries
There are 3 different kinds of convergent boundaries:
1. Continental & Continental
2. Oceanic & Continental
3. Oceanic & Oceanic

10. Convergent boundaries 1. Continental & Continental:
● In order to subduct, continental plates are too buoyant. When it
collides, what happens to mainland material? It doesn't have anywhere
to go but up!
● Some of the largest mountain ranges in the world are formed by
continent-continent convergence. Continent-continent collisions bring
about frequent and large earthquakes with massive slabs of crust
crashing together.
● In the Himalaya Mountains, the best location to see two continental
plates converging is.

11. Convergent boundaries 1. Continental & Continental:

12. Convergent boundaries 2. Oceanic & Continental
● A continent can collide with the oceanic crust. The oceanic plate is
denser, so subduction is carried out. This means that underneath the
continent, the oceanic plate sinks. This happens in a trench in the ocean.
Zones of subduction are where subduction occurs.
● A line of volcanoes known as a
continental arc forms a subduction
of an oceanic plate under a
continental plate and triggers
earthquakes.

13. Convergent boundaries 3. Oceanic & Oceanic
● The characteristics of a subduction zone where an oceanic plate
subducts under another oceanic plate are the same as the subduction
zone of a continent-ocean. The position where the plate is forced down
into the mantle is marked by an ocean trench.
● We begin our search to find
a convergent plate border
in western North America where
the oceanic crust subducts
underneath the oceanic crust.

14. The End
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watching!